Former US soldier speaks out on near-deadly beating at Guantanamo...

[King_Crimson]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jun2004/guan-j24_prn.shtml

By Walter Gilberti
24 June 2004

On Wednesday, ABC News interviewed Sean Baker, a former US Army SPC, who was nearly killed by his fellow soldiers during a training excercise at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba prison camp.
<snip>

While the army maintains that Baker, 37, who was medically discharged after the incident, suffered only minor injuries, official medical records reveal that he suffered permanent brain damage that has led to a complex seizure disorder. The incident occured in January, 2003, many months before reports of torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib began to surface. In what was supposed to be a "role-playing" exercise designed to simulate the proper treatment of prisoners who refuse to co-operate, Baker donned the orange jumpsuit worn by alleged Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners and was instructed to be "uncooperative". According to Baker, he was told to crawl underneath his bunk and not respond to his captors.


Evidently, the military police involved in the excercise were led to believe he was a real prisoner and proceeded to beat and choke him. Baker vividly described the intensity of the violence he was subjected to. "I could not breathe. So after a few seconds, I presume, I began to panic because I could not breathe, and I was just trying to get up and they just, you know, escalated the force. They just torqued it up. And from that point, the individual behind me slammed my head against the steel floor a few times, several times. And split my head over the top and on top of my right eye."

Baker explained that when he used the code word "red" to call for the termination of the excercise, his fellow soldiers did not respond.It was only when the beatings being administered caused the partial removal of the orange jumpsuit revealing his army uniform underneath that the soldiers realized he was not an actual prisoner.

But Baker's ordeal did not stop there. When he was removed from the cell, dogs of the prison canine unit, trained to attack anyone in an orange jumpsuit, began to attack Baker. "I moved out into the causeway and the canine unit was going wild...and someone screamed, yelled back and said, 'Cut the suit off him. Get that suit off him!'"

more...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/jun2004/guan-j24_prn.shtml

Now tell me...is that any way to treat a brutha? :mad:

[Spazito]

1. Holy crap!

Does this man have any legal recourse for what was done to him?

This sentence raises the hair on the back of my neck:

dogs of the prison canine unit, trained to attack anyone in an orange jumpsuit, began to attack Baker.

Trained to attack ANYONE in an orange jumpsuit??? Not threaten, attack!

[w13rd0]

2. These soldiers went hog wild...

...on a fellow soldier, just because he was a "detainee" and wearing a jumpsuit. Just TRY telling me orders to "torque it up" didn't come top down.

[Karenina]

7. And then tell me how this

TOP DOWN "mentality" affects the behaviour of troops toward civilians in Iraq. :puke:

[tom_paine]

3. We are now a nation of Good Germans, of willing torturers.

Imperial Amerika is a place with an Ugly Soul.

It's only going to get worse, I'm afraid.

These are the Good Old Days.

[rumguy]

4. This was on ABC News a few days ago

It blew my mind. It's irrefutable proof of use of excessive force.

[rumguy]

5. It's just makes me fuckin' sick

All he did was not immediately respond. And they went fucking nuts.... He has a permanent brain injury now!

I hope this story gets spread far and wide.

[King_Crimson]

6. Rest assured, you'll hear very little about it...

the mainstream media will show little...if any...interest.